'It was a Gold Cup performance' - Fact To File 7-2 for next year's Cheltenham showpiece after dominant win for Willie Mullins

Galopin Des Champs may become a dual Gold Cup winner on Friday but Willie Mullins already has a serious rival to him in Fact To File.

The 17-time Irish champion trainer has not concealed his admiration for JP McManus’s latest prodigy and the seven-year-old went some way to justifying his towering reputation with a breezy success under Mark Walsh. It was a performance that set him firmly on the path to a clash with his illustrious stablemate.

Fact To File has followed the bumper-to-chase route successfully taken by Florida Pearl, who triumphed in this race in 1998, and there are high hopes he can go on to Gold Cup success, which eluded that particular Mullins star in three attempts. He ranges in price from 7-2 to 5-1 for the 2025 showpiece after this victory.

“It was a Gold Cup performance,” said Mullins, whose nerves were not quelled by Ballyburn's opening strike. “I’ve loved him since the first day he came into the yard. JP wanted to go jumping and I said he’d win the bumper and it took A Dream To Share to beat him.

“He’s got the temperament for it, he’s like a child’s pony in the stable. I was a little surprised how keen he was there but Mark was riding him very conservatively because you can see how he was jumping out of his hands at every fence. He wanted to get on with the job.

"He’s a beautiful jumper and he gave Mark a tremendous ride. I’d say it was some thrill riding him around there. He’s just a real gentleman of a horse. I’ve always seen that potential in him and if you wanted to paint a steeplechaser he’s what you’d paint."

Looking to next season, he added: "You know the plan. We’ll probably start off with the John Durkan, nowadays we’ll go to Christmas and then the Dublin Racing Festival and then the Gold Cup."

Fact To File sets off up the run-in under Mark Walsh ahead of Monty's Star and Rachael BlackmoreCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Mullins seldom speaks in such terms of his horses but clearly he has a unique opinion of Fact To File, who showed none of his relative inexperience in a flawless success befitting his 8-13 odds. It was his third win from four starts over fences and a second Grade 1.

While Stay Away Fay, Sandor Clegane and Monty's Star attempted to make the race a dour test from the outset, Walsh was unhurried as his mount attacked the fences with the style and verve of a chaser with many more miles on the clock.

The pace that carried him to second in the Champion Bumper at last year's festival was evident as he closed on the leaders before taking it up at the second-last. A bold leap at the final fence sealed a sparkling victory, with the persistent Monty's Star almost four lengths back.

The victory earned the admiration of McManus, who shared the pre-race nerves of his trainer, but ultimately those feelings held any sort of weight only in the race's preliminaries.

“I was nervous," he said. "I thought he got a little warm and on his toes a bit beforehand, and I think Mark did a great job to get him settled. I think he'll have learned a lot from the race. I’m just so relieved. 

"This horse's potential is all in front of him. Willie decided to go straight chasing with him and I had no objection, it sounded good to me, and he's been vindicated."

Barry Maloney, owner of Monty's Star, will be hoping history can repeat itself. His star chaser Minella Indo, also trained by Henry de Bromhead, finished runner-up in the 2020 running of this race before triumphing in the following year's Gold Cup. 

"Obviously you’d like to win, but the winner looked very good and has done all year," said De Bromhead. “We lost little in defeat and he’s improving all the time.

"He’s a really exciting horse for us, and we’ll start at the Gold Cup and work backwards from there – the Minella Indo route. He’s seven, but he’s a big, raw horse and I think he’ll go on improving.”

Last year's Albert Bartlett winner Stay Away Fay, who was equipped with cheekpieces for the first time in his bid to give trainer Paul Nicholls a first winner of this year's festival, lost a shoe and was reported not to handle conditions, being pulled up just after the second-last.

Read these next:

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Dan Skelton says he has 'never been as proud of a result' after Langer Dan lands back-to-back Coral Cups 

Sir Gino will run says Nicky Henderson as Jonbon and Shishkin among big names taken out amid fears over health of string 

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